“I’m Literally Doing This Because They Will Take My Deposit”: Tenant Vents About The Reality Of Renting, Says Landlords Will Take Deposits For “Anything”
There are three things you can look at forever – how fire burns, how water flows, and how tenants in rented apartments resent their landlords. Of course, sometimes there are also bad tenants, but usually, landlords are the source of problems in such conflicts…
Perhaps you did not know that Dante was going to put picky landlords in a separate, tenth circle of hell but decided not to do this, because he also rented an apartment and did not want to quarrel with his landlord just to get his deposit back (but this is not exactly true).
But the author of this video on TikTok, a blogger with the nickname kay1331, was absolutely afraid that their deposit for a rented apartment would not be returned. The video shot by them went viral, gaining 283.9K views and almost 44K likes so far.
More info: TikTok
The Original Poster has to scrape off the black layer of paint in their rented apartment
Image credits: kay.1331
The Original Poster admitted that they used paintable wallpaper, and when they took it off, there was a little line of black paint around the edge. As a result, they had to literally scrape off the black layer of paint.
Image credits: kay.1331
The author is still afraid that the landlord may take their deposit anyway
The thing is that the OP is afraid that if there’s even the slightest problem with the paint, their landlord will refuse to return the deposit. According to the tenant’s own words, anyone who has ever rented an apartment knows that landlords are ready to take a deposit for literally anything.
Image credits: kay.1331
According to the latest research, almost 40 percent of tenants lose their deposits annually
By the way, the OP is not far from the truth. So, for example, according to a large-scale survey conducted by the British company Hillarys, approximately 29% of all tenants surveyed lose their deposits every year, which amounts to more than $1 billion.
Image credits: kay.1331
The most vulnerable category of tenants is young people and students. For example, last year, as another survey made by StudentTenant shows, four out of ten students lost part of their deposit or even the entire amount.
Image credits: kay.1331
There are several reasons why a landlord could take your deposit
According to the researchers, professional cleaning, damage to fittings, excessive wear and tear and unpaid bills are most often the reasons for non-refund or withholding of a part of the deposit. But this, of course, is if the landlord behaves decently enough.
@kay.1331 The paintable wallpaper worked amazing though and didnt damage the surface underneath! #rentingapartments #apartmentlife #getmydepositback ♬ оригінальний звук Kay
Be that as it may, in order to protect yourself from dishonest landlords, it is advised to take pictures of the condition of the apartment right after the contract signing and resolve any issues which may arise as quickly as possible. So the OP is absolutely right about scraping off the black paint – that might work well.
People in the comments said that landlords can literally make up a reason to withhold a deposit
Actually, commenters on the OP’s video also claim that landlords are willing to withhold deposits in any case – for example, to clean carpets and drapes, even if you cleaned everything yourself beforehand. Deposits are not returned for the smallest of reasons – and a paint drip may well be one.
One of the people in the comments, by the way, wrote that she deliberately took a number of pictures and a full video immediately after moving into the apartment – just in case to prove that she was not the cause of any problem. Let’s just hope this works…
Well, if the issue of landlords and tenants looks interesting to you, you can delve further into the topic and read the post about how a management company required this tenant to sign the inspection form literally in the blind, otherwise, they would refuse to give the keys. However, owning a home is not a universal solution either – and this post of ours is the best proof of that. In any case, any comments are highly appreciated.
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Share on FacebookShe chose to put the wallpaper up and part of removing it is cleaning up the residue it leaves behind. Plenty of tenants have lots of reasons to complain about their landlord but I don't see that here.
Agreed. This wasn't natural wear and tear. She caused the "damage" so she should fix it.
Load More Replies...But *she* painted the walls, that was her choice not the landlord's. My god, what a spoiled brat. If I painted where I was renting there's no way I'd leave it that way. She's paying rent for a property someone else owns! If she ever buys her own place she can do whatever the hell she wants to it. The sense of entitlement is nauseating.
I was in college when the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a hot new band. My suitemates wanted to paint RHCP-specific murals on the walls of their dorm room. The university let them--as long as they agreed to repaint the walls themselves when they moved out (the university agreed to give them the paint). They agreed, they did repaint before they moved out, and afaik they didn't get in trouble, the university was happy with the repaint job.
Load More Replies...I never got a single deposit back when I was renting. At the last place I rented before buying my house, I just considered the deposit a cleaning fee and put zero effort into cleaning. I left it tidy and took all my belongings and trash, but no way was I going to spend three days dusting and polishing and vacuuming. That's what my $300 deposit paid for.
I would love any of you to be my tenant. I’ve had rotten food left in fridge, dog and cat poo on floors, meth dealing, gunshots at house, children with crayons, vermin, holes in doors and walls, broken windows, left furniture I had to pay someone to haul away, and dozens of old tv’s that cost $50-$100 to have taken away. I LOVE writing checks to return deposits. I understand wear and tear. I don’t get living like a pig.
The last house I rented had an $800 deposit. I noticed it had a bulge in the wall in the master bathroom bath/shower when I was there for the inspection prior to moving in. I reported it to the rental company, and received a message thanking me for letting them know. Ok, they know I know, right? Okay, so six months in, the oven quit. I report it, it takes a month to get anyone to answer my request for service. They come out and say, you'll need a new oven. I say, not me, that's the landlord's problem. They say, you can buy one and take it with you when you move. NOPE! Three months later, I finally hear from the rental agency, "your new stove will be delivered tomorrow. NO NOTICE! (I work full-time and support my elderly father at home). I have NO oven in this place over Thanksgiving AND Christmas that year! ANYWAY, when I go to move out, I busted my rear cleaning that place, top to bottom, east to west, north to south. Carpet cleaner...
It's so funny how the mind works now. I damaged the property and the lease I freely signed says they can take money from my deposit to clean.....Butttttt it was only small damage and they are just mean. Wow.
continued... pest control treatment, sewer flush, you name it. I NEEDED that $800 back! The inspector comes to check me out and says, looks good! we'll let you know! I remind her that I have pictures showing what was damaged when I started my rental, (recall the bulging wall in master bath), she says, yes, we have that in our records. One month later, I get a check in the mail for $326.92! WHAT? I call and they said they had to do major repairs and I was lucky I got anything back. I passed the word to NOT rent from this company! P.S. This is a military town... can you tell they love their soldiers.
There was an American court show, a couple decades ago, where a young couple was suing their former landlord to get their deposit back. They claimed they left their apartment "immaculate" when they left. My initial, very cynical reaction was to say, "Yeah, right!" but then they showed pictures of how they left it. It actually was immaculate! So then the judge asks the landlord why she's keeping their deposit. She claims that the apartment was "filthy," and as the "piece de resistance" (her words) she shows the judge a closeup of the kitchen sink. The sink is spotless, the faucet's spotless, the only "problem" is a tiny, pencil-eraser sized speck of dirt about an inch away from the sink drain. Turn on the water and the dir would be gone. The judge literally laughed at the defendant, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and gave them their entire deposit back.
In the UK, the government launched a Tenancy deposit protection scheme, where the money is deposited in a controlled account. If you dispute the charges, the money is locked until the dispute is arbitrated and resolved via the scheme...
We have similar in South Australia. The bond money is kept by a third party and the tenant and landlord have to agree before the bond money is released. If there is a dispute the bond money is withheld until the dispute has been resolved.
Load More Replies...In the UK landlords are not allowed to keep your deposit, it must be given to a deposit scheme. When you move out if a landlord wants to have your deposit they have to go to the scheme and show evidence why. My last landlord didn't and was breaking the law, technically I could have taken them to court and got several £ks back. They tried to keep my money so my dad threatened them with court and I got it back.
Is there no renters rights in the US. We have the tenancy tribunal in South Australia that us renters can call about any issues. Also at the beginning of a tenancy there is often an inspection sheet where you go around the house and write any issues (even minor) down, room by room. Once you end your tenancy you do another inspection sheet and the landlord will deduct costs from your bond for any new damage. We have rented from 6 different places and only lost our bond with the first house. We were inexperienced and didn't understand our rights back then.
if BoredPanda stories told us in the rest of the world anything, is that, regular people are always the losers when it comes to other parties on upper levels of the capitalist hierarchy.
Load More Replies...Anybody whose ever rented should also know that that is NOT YOUR PROPERTY. You don't damage or alter the unit. Landlords are usually pretty strict about this so that they're not painting over a black wall 15 times. I've never been a landlord but I grew up in apartment buildings. They don't belong to you, and you are supposed to clean up whatever mess you make of the place if you want your deposit back. Sorry but I don't have any sympathy for this particular renter.
Hey Pandas, here is brand story from Germany: There was recently a court ruling around deposits. So in Germany the renter pays a deposit to the landlord, as in the US, but in Germany the landlord can't use that deposit. He/she usually puts in a dedicated bank account. And now the important bit: Any interest generated by that deposit is the renter's. In the recent court case a married couple paid a deposit in 1960 of 800 German Marks. The landlord, in this case a huge company, didn't put the money into a bank account, it bought stock. The rental agreement ended in 2018. The company paid back the deposit of now 409€, but the renters wanted to get the stock which was bought with their deposit back in the day. And the court ruled in the renter's favour. They are now 115,000€ richer. :-)
I lost a deposit cause they said I didn't clean the lint trap of the dryer before I left. That's crazy cause I always clean the lint filter - even now that I use a laundromat I clean the filters when I'm done drying!
It seems they are just asking for tenants to just give up and not bother at this point. Just making it harder for themselves. The point of the deposit is that you get it back at the end. When that doesn't happen it's just another fee.
I’ve been both a tenant and a landlord. I had to take a landlord to court once because he was keeping our deposit for stuff That was broken before we moved in. We won! As a landlord, we had a tenant go nutty during the pandemic. Even though our contract said she wasn’t allowed to paint (we had just painted it) she wanted gray and painted 3 of 4 walls, did a crappy job and we had to do it over. She also had stuck contact paper in the floor and took it up by scratching it with a razor blade, ruining the actual floor. Because it was during the pandemic we didn’t charge her. We should have though, because it cost us $$$ and time to repair her damage.
I have never had a deposit returned. I think it's just expected that you won't get it back.
Each time I left a place, I always made sure it was pristine but I still got screwed with b******t charges. So, now I got into the habit of never paying the last month of rent. Keep the deposit for my rent, sue me if you feel like. So far I was never sued for it and it solves the problem.
I've been both lucky and unlucky with tenants. It may be a cliche but most white collar tenants do take care of the place and I have no issue returning deposits in full. I've had like 5 of these over the years. Now the other end of the scale I've had some really horrible people. There was the guy breaking the toilet sink, and then the dude that jerry-rigged a ceiling light into an extension cord and the "sub-landlord" who made keys for his "tenants" but never kept track. Their deposits didn't make up for the mess I had to deal with.
First of all, I think if she left black paint on the closet or cupboard doors she should indeed remove those. Secondly she said:"the reality o renting an appartment is f*****g ridiculous!" needs to be put into perspective, as it may be applicable to renting in the US but definitely not in other countries. Take Germany for example, I have always gotten my full deposit back. In my current appartment, my desposit were 2000€. But I moved into an appartment quite worn out, so I renovated it. Painted all the walls, the doors and the doorframes white. But the thing is, I will not have to do it when I move out. and last point: In Germany the deposit is put into an seperate bank account, not in the landlord's name! The depoist in that account gets interest and the renter, not the landlord, gets that interest.
At my last place I spent 6 hours cleaning and vacuuming and they still took my deposit. I called and asked where the rest of it was and apparently I left a bag in one of the drawers. ☹️ I was like are you serious? If I had known you would take it no matter what then I wouldn't have spent 6 hrs cleaning. After I shamed them/left a review on their site they agreed to give back half.
She chose to put the wallpaper up and part of removing it is cleaning up the residue it leaves behind. Plenty of tenants have lots of reasons to complain about their landlord but I don't see that here.
Agreed. This wasn't natural wear and tear. She caused the "damage" so she should fix it.
Load More Replies...But *she* painted the walls, that was her choice not the landlord's. My god, what a spoiled brat. If I painted where I was renting there's no way I'd leave it that way. She's paying rent for a property someone else owns! If she ever buys her own place she can do whatever the hell she wants to it. The sense of entitlement is nauseating.
I was in college when the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a hot new band. My suitemates wanted to paint RHCP-specific murals on the walls of their dorm room. The university let them--as long as they agreed to repaint the walls themselves when they moved out (the university agreed to give them the paint). They agreed, they did repaint before they moved out, and afaik they didn't get in trouble, the university was happy with the repaint job.
Load More Replies...I never got a single deposit back when I was renting. At the last place I rented before buying my house, I just considered the deposit a cleaning fee and put zero effort into cleaning. I left it tidy and took all my belongings and trash, but no way was I going to spend three days dusting and polishing and vacuuming. That's what my $300 deposit paid for.
I would love any of you to be my tenant. I’ve had rotten food left in fridge, dog and cat poo on floors, meth dealing, gunshots at house, children with crayons, vermin, holes in doors and walls, broken windows, left furniture I had to pay someone to haul away, and dozens of old tv’s that cost $50-$100 to have taken away. I LOVE writing checks to return deposits. I understand wear and tear. I don’t get living like a pig.
The last house I rented had an $800 deposit. I noticed it had a bulge in the wall in the master bathroom bath/shower when I was there for the inspection prior to moving in. I reported it to the rental company, and received a message thanking me for letting them know. Ok, they know I know, right? Okay, so six months in, the oven quit. I report it, it takes a month to get anyone to answer my request for service. They come out and say, you'll need a new oven. I say, not me, that's the landlord's problem. They say, you can buy one and take it with you when you move. NOPE! Three months later, I finally hear from the rental agency, "your new stove will be delivered tomorrow. NO NOTICE! (I work full-time and support my elderly father at home). I have NO oven in this place over Thanksgiving AND Christmas that year! ANYWAY, when I go to move out, I busted my rear cleaning that place, top to bottom, east to west, north to south. Carpet cleaner...
It's so funny how the mind works now. I damaged the property and the lease I freely signed says they can take money from my deposit to clean.....Butttttt it was only small damage and they are just mean. Wow.
continued... pest control treatment, sewer flush, you name it. I NEEDED that $800 back! The inspector comes to check me out and says, looks good! we'll let you know! I remind her that I have pictures showing what was damaged when I started my rental, (recall the bulging wall in master bath), she says, yes, we have that in our records. One month later, I get a check in the mail for $326.92! WHAT? I call and they said they had to do major repairs and I was lucky I got anything back. I passed the word to NOT rent from this company! P.S. This is a military town... can you tell they love their soldiers.
There was an American court show, a couple decades ago, where a young couple was suing their former landlord to get their deposit back. They claimed they left their apartment "immaculate" when they left. My initial, very cynical reaction was to say, "Yeah, right!" but then they showed pictures of how they left it. It actually was immaculate! So then the judge asks the landlord why she's keeping their deposit. She claims that the apartment was "filthy," and as the "piece de resistance" (her words) she shows the judge a closeup of the kitchen sink. The sink is spotless, the faucet's spotless, the only "problem" is a tiny, pencil-eraser sized speck of dirt about an inch away from the sink drain. Turn on the water and the dir would be gone. The judge literally laughed at the defendant, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and gave them their entire deposit back.
In the UK, the government launched a Tenancy deposit protection scheme, where the money is deposited in a controlled account. If you dispute the charges, the money is locked until the dispute is arbitrated and resolved via the scheme...
We have similar in South Australia. The bond money is kept by a third party and the tenant and landlord have to agree before the bond money is released. If there is a dispute the bond money is withheld until the dispute has been resolved.
Load More Replies...In the UK landlords are not allowed to keep your deposit, it must be given to a deposit scheme. When you move out if a landlord wants to have your deposit they have to go to the scheme and show evidence why. My last landlord didn't and was breaking the law, technically I could have taken them to court and got several £ks back. They tried to keep my money so my dad threatened them with court and I got it back.
Is there no renters rights in the US. We have the tenancy tribunal in South Australia that us renters can call about any issues. Also at the beginning of a tenancy there is often an inspection sheet where you go around the house and write any issues (even minor) down, room by room. Once you end your tenancy you do another inspection sheet and the landlord will deduct costs from your bond for any new damage. We have rented from 6 different places and only lost our bond with the first house. We were inexperienced and didn't understand our rights back then.
if BoredPanda stories told us in the rest of the world anything, is that, regular people are always the losers when it comes to other parties on upper levels of the capitalist hierarchy.
Load More Replies...Anybody whose ever rented should also know that that is NOT YOUR PROPERTY. You don't damage or alter the unit. Landlords are usually pretty strict about this so that they're not painting over a black wall 15 times. I've never been a landlord but I grew up in apartment buildings. They don't belong to you, and you are supposed to clean up whatever mess you make of the place if you want your deposit back. Sorry but I don't have any sympathy for this particular renter.
Hey Pandas, here is brand story from Germany: There was recently a court ruling around deposits. So in Germany the renter pays a deposit to the landlord, as in the US, but in Germany the landlord can't use that deposit. He/she usually puts in a dedicated bank account. And now the important bit: Any interest generated by that deposit is the renter's. In the recent court case a married couple paid a deposit in 1960 of 800 German Marks. The landlord, in this case a huge company, didn't put the money into a bank account, it bought stock. The rental agreement ended in 2018. The company paid back the deposit of now 409€, but the renters wanted to get the stock which was bought with their deposit back in the day. And the court ruled in the renter's favour. They are now 115,000€ richer. :-)
I lost a deposit cause they said I didn't clean the lint trap of the dryer before I left. That's crazy cause I always clean the lint filter - even now that I use a laundromat I clean the filters when I'm done drying!
It seems they are just asking for tenants to just give up and not bother at this point. Just making it harder for themselves. The point of the deposit is that you get it back at the end. When that doesn't happen it's just another fee.
I’ve been both a tenant and a landlord. I had to take a landlord to court once because he was keeping our deposit for stuff That was broken before we moved in. We won! As a landlord, we had a tenant go nutty during the pandemic. Even though our contract said she wasn’t allowed to paint (we had just painted it) she wanted gray and painted 3 of 4 walls, did a crappy job and we had to do it over. She also had stuck contact paper in the floor and took it up by scratching it with a razor blade, ruining the actual floor. Because it was during the pandemic we didn’t charge her. We should have though, because it cost us $$$ and time to repair her damage.
I have never had a deposit returned. I think it's just expected that you won't get it back.
Each time I left a place, I always made sure it was pristine but I still got screwed with b******t charges. So, now I got into the habit of never paying the last month of rent. Keep the deposit for my rent, sue me if you feel like. So far I was never sued for it and it solves the problem.
I've been both lucky and unlucky with tenants. It may be a cliche but most white collar tenants do take care of the place and I have no issue returning deposits in full. I've had like 5 of these over the years. Now the other end of the scale I've had some really horrible people. There was the guy breaking the toilet sink, and then the dude that jerry-rigged a ceiling light into an extension cord and the "sub-landlord" who made keys for his "tenants" but never kept track. Their deposits didn't make up for the mess I had to deal with.
First of all, I think if she left black paint on the closet or cupboard doors she should indeed remove those. Secondly she said:"the reality o renting an appartment is f*****g ridiculous!" needs to be put into perspective, as it may be applicable to renting in the US but definitely not in other countries. Take Germany for example, I have always gotten my full deposit back. In my current appartment, my desposit were 2000€. But I moved into an appartment quite worn out, so I renovated it. Painted all the walls, the doors and the doorframes white. But the thing is, I will not have to do it when I move out. and last point: In Germany the deposit is put into an seperate bank account, not in the landlord's name! The depoist in that account gets interest and the renter, not the landlord, gets that interest.
At my last place I spent 6 hours cleaning and vacuuming and they still took my deposit. I called and asked where the rest of it was and apparently I left a bag in one of the drawers. ☹️ I was like are you serious? If I had known you would take it no matter what then I wouldn't have spent 6 hrs cleaning. After I shamed them/left a review on their site they agreed to give back half.
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